Contact: Jim Laird

STARKVILLE, Miss.—The Southeastern Conference’s prowess on the football field is well known, but many fans may not know that the SEC’s 14 member institutions pack an equally potent academic punch off the field.

Thanks to an innovative grant program funded by the conference, eight Mississippi State University faculty members now are better equipped to collaborate with SEC colleagues from across the region.

Heather Alexander, Lei Chen, Jean-Magloire Feugang, Rinat Gabitov, David Hoffman, Leslie Hossfeld, Rosangela Sebba and Te-Ming Paul Tseng are recipients of 2016-17 SEC Visiting Faculty Travel Grants, according to a senior administrator at the land-grant institution.

“These grants will allow our faculty to travel to another SEC campus to exchange ideas, develop grant proposals, conduct research, meet with peers and students, and give lectures or other presentations,” said Assistant Vice President for Research Teresa Gammill.

She coordinated the application and review process in conjunction with the offices of the Executive Vice President and Provost, and the Vice President for Agriculture, Forestry and Veterinary Medicine at MSU.

Each grant is for $1,250, Gammill said.

“This year’s crop of proposals was very good, and we appreciate the effort of all who applied,” added David Shaw, the university’s vice president for research and economic development.

Alexander is an assistant professor of forestry; Chen, assistant professor of mechanical engineering; Feugang, assistant research professor of animal and dairy science; Gabitov, assistant professor of geosciences; Hoffman, associate professor of anthropology and Middle Eastern cultures; Hossfeld, professor of sociology and department head; Sebba, professor of music; and Tseng, assistant professor of plant and soil sciences.

For more information about the program, contact Gammill at tgammill@research.msstate.edu or 662-325-3570.

MSU is Mississippi’s leading university, available online at www.msstate.edu.